All Categories — Books  

An anthology of hip hop art & graphics compiled by designer Cey Adams – from street art, to snapshots of the NYC underground from the end of the 60s through the 80s, pivotal album cover art, hip hop in the worlds of advertising and film, fashion and more! Loads of classic hip hop imagery... read more

A great overview of exotic music in all its forms – not just the familiar American variant of the postwar years, but also a strong look at Italian exotica too! The book was originally penned in Italian, and has a good ear for the kind of unusual soundtrack and sound library material that... read more

The All Music Guide Required Listening collection of essential classic rock – featuring 1000 album reviews from the excellent All Music Guide reviewers – from the uber-legendary likes of Dylan, Springsteen, The Beatles, Hendrix and the like – to just as important and less... read more

A guide to essential Old School Rap & Hip Hop from team at the indespensible All Music Guide – featuring more than 500 music reviews of important records by Grandmaster Flash, Run-DMC, NWA, Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Public Enemy and so much more – plus reviews on soul and funk LPs... read more

The massive All Music Guide To Rock – The Definitive Guide To Rock, Pop And Soul (3rd Edition) – featuring reviews of thousands and thousands albums as rated and reviewed by the exceptional All Music Guide writers! The book is an encyclopedia of pop music from the 50s to the early 00s... read more

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A pretty well-done look at the effect of recording technology on music in the 20th century – with an especially strong focus on the way that classical has been shaped by the evolution in sound! Author Arved Ashby definitely writes here from an academic perspective, but has a way of making... read more

The Beach Boys – day by day, year by year, presented in a very compelling diary format that really gets past some of the overblown mythos about the group! Author Badman goes for a "just the facts" sort of approach – and lists key days in the group's career from the 60s onward... read more

Incredible images from one of the most legendary reggae labels ever – the mighty Studio One, home to decades of classic music, put together with equally-classic images on the record covers! The book is maybe even more of a treasure than some other album art books you'll find – because... read more

Amazing images galore – some classic covers from the Jamaican scene of the 60s and 70s, and lots more obscure images too – all presented in very vivid color, with a lot more clarity than any of the beat up original copies we have in our collection! The book really does full justice to... read more

A treasure trove of 50s romance comics – brought together in a great-looking package, with helpful framing from author Michael Barson! The core material is great – way more than the soppy romance stories you might think – and instead some really compelling work that really gets... read more

A "pocket guide" to 69 Love Songs – the wildly ambitious mid 90s art pop breakout effort from Magnetic Fields – and possibly the most sprawling single project profiled in the 33 1/3 series! 69 Love Songs is such an ambitious project, they probably could have eked a 3 part... read more

A great look at the never-ending genius of the legendary Steve Ditko – one of the greatest comic book artists of all time, and someone who's given us decades of enjoyment! This beautiful oversized book is a great companion to all the vintage Ditko material that's been reissued in recent... read more

A cool little book that's partly an introduction to jazz – but more like a cool collection of sidebars from longer articles – offering up interesting slices that really help you understand the music! The book is roughly chronological, but served up with lots of images and smaller text... read more

The life of Billie Holliday! Billie is one of the most fascinating singers in American musical history, both for her beautiful, amazing voice and for the life she led. Even the story behind this book about her life is fascinating! In the 70s, Billie Holliday was interviewed extensively for an... read more

A great look at one of the more modern sides of our fair city – a beautiful book that focuses on the Lake Shore Drive apartments of architect Mies Van Der Rohe! Mies had a huge influence on the city's look in the postwar years – and some of his most striking creations are a set of... read more

A heavy-duty, lavishly-illustrated ode to the art of Louis Armstrong! It's not a biography – but a beautiful, 250+ page collection of photographs, movie stills, Satchmo's own hand-written letters, collage art and more! It's been put together by Steven Brower, with a forward by Hilton Als... read more

A range of essays on the music, influence, and cultural significance of the late John Coltrane – easily one of the key forces to have shaped our taste here at Dusty Groove! The book offers a number of differing perspectives, some with an academic tone, some a bit more political – and... read more

Author Mick Brown chronicles the fascinating, tragic world of the Phil Spector – the most fascinating figure in American pop music history – thanks to both his unrivaled genius and artistry, his fabled reclusiveness and ultimately, real life crime noir tragedy. From his epic work with... read more

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An absorbing biography of one legendary French singer Edith Piaf – one of the most alluring voices of the past century – and superbly written by Carolyn Burke! Edith Piaf lived as fascinating of a life as any international icon we can think of – musical or otherwise – and... read more

Charles Burns in a beautiful format – an oversized, nicely-bound edition that makes his work here feel like the glory days of Raw Comics! The story is quite dark – the first chapter of a new story line from Burns – and the images have this really unsettling way of turning a... read more

Somebody's finally gone out and written a book about one subject we can really get behind – the Record Store – and not only that, they've done a beautiful job with the entire package too! The book takes a look at the importance of the record store – not just historically, but... read more

A rock and roll poster book – but one that features posters for only one band – Electric Frankenstein! Don't let that single-subject quality fool you, though – because the book's overflowing with variety – very vivid work from some of the leading lights in the... read more

Amazing images from the Santeria underground in contemporary Cuba – the rich spiritual culture that's persisted for decades – and, if anything, has gotten only stronger through a rich network of local practice and dedicated spirituality! The photographs here are all in brilliant black... read more

A heavy duty gospel music encyclopedia – named for the hymn Uncloudy Day and chronicling the careers of hundreds and hundreds of gospel artists and personalities from 1900 to the present day! It's a wonderful resource, put together by Bil Carpenter, who has written about soul, pop and gospel... read more

Urban radio from the inside – the third volume in Marcus Chapman's very detailed memoirs – covering his important late 90s years at Chicago's WGCI! Unlike other books of this nature, which are usually just history – and ancient history at that – Chapman's volume really digs... read more

Sexy cartoons galore – pulled from the pages of the vintage Humorama publications of the 50s, 60s, and 70s – and featuring work from comic giants Jack Cole, Dan DeCarlo, Basil Wolverton, Dave Berg, Bill Ward, and others! The gimmicks are usually simple – a busty gal in skimpy... read more

One of the most heartbreaking stories we've ever read from Daniel Clowes – penned with a sense of pathos we never would have expected during his Ghost World years! The book has a great format – long sideways, like a newspaper comic strip – and Clowes' pages alternate between... read more

A unique account of the oft-told history of Chess Records by author Rich Cohen – focusing on the business acumen the the Chess Brothers, and the brazen approach that brought the music of juke joints to the mainstream. Cohen doesn't pull any punches when it comes to the exploitational side of... read more

A heavily detailed story of the great Nina Simone – her really unique place in music and American society – with a strong focus on the boundaries she broke and bridges she burned! Author Nadine Cohodas wrote a previous book on Dinah Washington, and does an even better job here with... read more

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Amazing images from the universe of Sun Ra – a mixture of rare photographs and mural images painted by Aye Aton – sometime percussionist with the Arkestra, and a heck of a great painter too! The book begins with these stunning full color photographs of Ra on the set of Space Is The... read more

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Amazing work from the great Roy Crane – one of the most important newspaper strip artists of the 20th Century! The book features the initial few years of Buz Sawyer – a new project that Crane did for William Randolph Hearst after leaving behind his very successful Wash Tubbs &... read more

One of the first great adventure strips of the 30s – presented here in a beautiful oversize volume! Roy Crane's artwork on Captain Easy is tremendous – a magnificently thin line at times, yet full of rich feeling that's augmented by the coloring of the strip – often almost water-c... read more

One of the first great adventure strips of the 30s – presented here in a beautiful oversize volume! Roy Crane's artwork on Captain Easy is tremendous – a magnificently thin line at times, yet full of rich feeling that's augmented by the coloring of the strip – often almost water-c... read more

A great overview of the sound of surf music on the west coast – a surprisingly detailed volume that really fills in a lot of gaps in our knowledge of the genre – which can often be a bit oblique, due to a lack of studio and session details on the original records! Kent Crowley traces... read more

A chronicle of African American Singing & Praying Bands in Maryland and Delaware – stirring spiritual music with roots in the Chesapeak Bay of the nineteenth century – and still thrives! It includes the first-person histories of the singers, players and prayers, musical annotion... read more

A wonderful memoir from the glory days of the Italian soundtrack scene – penned by Franco De Gemini (aka "The Man With The Harmonica"), and filled with loads of color photos and images of albums! Franco's memoirs are often quite personal – at a level that sheds tremendous new... read more

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Just in case you thought all the backstage and tour bus action in the 70s was exaggerated, Pamela Des Barres comes along to show you that things were even wilder than you thought! The book is maybe a bit more freewheeling than some of her other volumes – as Pamela brings together stories... read more

Vintage images from Japanese movie posters – almost all of them hand-painted for the local market, and quite different than more famous images that circulated worldwide! The work here often has a warm, painterly quality – which really personalizes the presentation of the films,... read more

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The remarkable story behind one greatest and most successful soul albums of all time – Aretha Franklin's I Never Loved A Man The Way I Love You – the deepest account on the making of the album we've ever come across! Author Matt Doblin tells the story with loads of fresh interviews,... read more

Cultural historian Alice Echols explores the massive shifts in American culture during and as impacted by the disco era – not only in fashion and record sales – but the racial, sexual and behavioral landscape at large! Echols is a biographer and historian, but she's also former disco... read more

We love The Creation, but never knew their full story until now – a really compelling tale that not only gets at the greatness of their music in the 60s, but which also explains why they never reached the sort of fame they deserved! The story here is incredibly detailed – not just fan... read more

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Tough, dirty and stylish late 50s short stories by the great Harlan Ellison – who would go on to be hailed as one of great science fiction and suspense writers in print, film and television – but working here as a very young man, under pseudonyms, on seedy crime and pulp stories! It's... read more

Gritty prose from the legendary Harlan Ellison – a writer known best for his science fiction work, but who's represented here by some very early material that's plenty violent and salacious! The writing should be taken in the spirit of the title and cover – and Harlan himself does a... read more

A guided tour of New York City – specially tailored for the music lover! The book's broken up into specific chapters that each deal with a certain section of the city – offering up stories about the music that was made there, as well as key locations in which it happened – often... read more

Amazing early work from Bill Everett – easily one of our favorite artistic talents of the Golden Age – famous for creating Sub Mariner, but seen here in a host of other rare work that's never been collected before! Everett's name was associated with Marvel/Timely for decades –... read more

A great book of vintage Bob Dylan photos – all in stark, statuesque and beautiful black & white – with shots by Barry Feinstein, Daniel Kramer and Jim Marshall – and featuring a forward by Arlo Guthrie! The photos are rich and evocative – very much reminiscient of Dylan's... read more

Tony Fletcher's impressive, sprawling look at the street music fom New York – one that covers the heart of the 20th century! Fletcher has penned the kind of far-reaching tome hear that truly commands respect – covering 50 years of NYC music from the early days of 78s to the punk &... read more

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Kim Fowley, an author? Stranger things have happened – and given Fowley's penchant for putting his finger in just about every pie that came within reach, the whole thing's no surprise at all! The book is a stunning account of Fowley's important years in the music business – working in... read more

If you liked the first volume of this essential book, you'll love this revised edition – because it's almost 3 times bigger, and stuffed with great new features! The book's a lifetime labor of love for Freddy Fresh – an extensive discography that's got to be the most definitive book on... read more

Get ready for a history lesson of a different kind! While you may know every angle of the crate diggin' craft, do you know your shoes? If you don't, you better ask somebody, and this hefty tome from Cucumber Slice might just be the best place to start. This paean to the athletic footwear of the... read more

A cool German book with a great sense of global street culture – photos from around the world, brought together with a National Geographic brand, but much grittier than anything we ever remember seeing in the magazine! The hefty tome is almost 400 pages, in full color, and is filled with... read more

A remarkable collection of a half century of writings on James Brown – from a Variety piece way back in 1959 up to a Rolling Stone profile from 2006 – edited by Nelson George & Alan Leeds and featuring work items from trades, newspaper and magazine profiles, select liner notes and... read more

A much-needed second volume of Vinyl Lives – especially since they left Dusty Groove out of the first book! This time, they correct their mistake with a nice long look at our store – plus other chapters in equally important record retailers – including Jerry's in Pittsburgh,... read more

A beautiful collection of early 30s newspaper strips penned by Floyd Gottfredson – early daily comics starring Mickey Mouse, but offering up a very different version of the character than on the screen! The format does a great job of tying Mickey to some of the other comic stars of the time... read more

A beautiful collection of early 30s newspaper strips penned by Floyd Gottfredson – early daily comics starring Mickey Mouse, but offering up a very different version of the character than on the screen! The format does a great job of tying Mickey to some of the other comic stars of the time... read more

The amazing story of Ahmet Ertegun – the driving force behind Atlantic Records, and a crucial figure in popular music in the 20th Century! Ahmet's story is the stuff of legend – and this book delivers the whole thing in stunning detail – from Ertegun's early years as the child of... read more

A totally great book for 7" collectors – especially if you dig unusual picture sleeves! The book was put together by DJ Muro – an artist we've come to love for his work on mixes and compilations, but who's also well-known for his massive record collection, too – one that's... read more

A cool little guide to all things club jazz – put together by Shuya Okino of Kyoto Jazz Massive, and featuring both record listings and writings! The record listing section is a fair bit smaller than other Japanese books like this that we stock – about 40 pages that show how you might... read more

An incredible look at the all-too-short life and music of Sam Cooke – put together by Peter Guralnick with an amazing amount of historical detail, and an even more important love of Cooke's music! The book is to Cooke what Guralnick's earlier writings were to Elvis Presley – a much... read more

The story of the Creole Band – the 7-piece group that took to touring the US in the 1910s – and thusly introduced a lot of people to the pioneering strains of New Orleans-style jazz to heck of a lot people for the very first time – and planting seeds for much of the jazz music to... read more

The life story of Buddy Guy – one of the the key blues figures to come out of our Windy City home! David Ritz helps shape the story, but the book is definitely in Buddy's own words – which vividly paint a picture of both the Chicago scene, and the growing global world that began to... read more

The sensational early 70s document of the big city pimp culture by writer Susan Hall & photgrapher Bob Adelman! It features fascinating interviews with "professional gentleman of leisure" Silky and his "wives" – and filled with jaw dropping b&w photography. A... read more

A great compendium of album and 45 cover art for always fun to look at, often horrible to listen to records released by actors, athletes and other celebrities! Feast upon the cover art for records by Don Johnson, Morton Downey Jr, The Chicago Bears, John Schneider, Alyssa Milano, Eddie Murphy,... read more

Completely bizarre, and wonderfully beautiful images from Fletcher Hanks – an overlooked cartoonist from the early days of comic books – and a talent as weirdly unique as bigger names like Basil Wolverton or Virgil Finlay! The cover and title offer stark testimony to the genius within... read more

A great revolution in record cover art – the early 90s rise of the hand-made package in the punk rock underground! 7" singles were a key force in punk and other underground styles of the time – and these small pressings were often hand-assembled by the bands themselves –... read more

The story of Bozo The Clown, told by the man himself – served up in a very vivid format that's as playful as the old TV show! We're part of the generation who grew up with the crazy red-haired clown – and Harmon's book definitely tells plenty of the tale we never saw on TV – the... read more

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The story of the evolving history of European jazz – from its development in Scandinavia, Holland, England, France & Germany and its further spread – from author Mike Heffley. Heffley writes sections on the emancipation from formality, with players such as Mangelsdorff, Kuhn &... read more

Some of the darkest work we've ever seen from Gilbert Hernandez – his third standalone graphic novel in this cool crime/b-movie-styled series! The work has a feel that's a bit like his Palomar stories, but packs a bit more punch, too – somewhat raunchier in themes, with the kind of... read more

A cinematic effort from Gilbert Hernandez – a standalone graphic novel that expands on the story of one of the characters from his Palomar epic – but with a gritty sort of vibe that really matches the cover! The shift is a nice one – as Hernandez works in an even more visually-foc... read more

A treasure trove of lesser-known work by the Hernandez Brothers – shorter stories that were mostly one-offs from Love & Rockets – and which feature different themes and characters than the long-running Locas and Palomar epics! The book features lots of wonderful stuff from the... read more

A cool sci-fi story from two of the three brothers who created Love & Rockets – a tight little tale about robot culture, with a vibe that's like some of the best work from the early years of the magazine! The drawings here are most strongly in the famous style of Gilbert Hernadez, but... read more

The Byrds went through many many changes during their legendary run in the late 60s – some of which are documented on their rich body of recorded work, lots more of which you'll find in this thick volume of historical detail! The book offers a day by day, year by year existence of the group... read more

A beautiful book that documents the overlooked legacy of Brion Gysin – contemporary and collaborator of William S Burroughs and other important beat figures – but also an artist with a vision that goes way beyond that initial moment! The book brings together a wealth of images of Gysin'... read more

A much-needed look at the amazing underground jazz scene in LA – the richly creative spiritual and avant underground that flourished strongly in the 60s, 70s, and 80s! Although the city's best known for its cool jazz of the 50s, there's an even greater amount of left-field jazz that's come... read more

An amazing guide to some of the hippest jazz ever released – a wealth of great albums from the 50s and 60s – not just from the US, but from England, Italy, Germany, and many other global locales! As with other volumes in this series, the discography focuses on rare bits that have a... read more

The groundbreaking hip hop culture magazine may be long gone, but the endearingly cynical, satirical, bitter yet undeniably realistic voice of Sacha Jenkins and Ego Trip contributers and collaborators is alive and well in their Big Book Of Racism! Chapters include "Disgracism", "Get... read more

A brilliant look at the early days of the comic book industry – a very well-written history that intermingles economic history and personal biography – in ways that really get at the complexity of the early days of comics! Gerard Jones covers a wide range of roots at the start of the... read more

A very cool book – not just a biography on Quincy Jones, but one that's filled with photos, letters, and other things from his personal collection – plus some very cool "artifacts" as well! The volume's put together like a mini-museum of Q's life – and features pull-out... read more

Quincy Jones tells all his secrets of the studio – working here in a really cool volume that details his production efforts on decades' worth of records – with a strong focus on some of the most special albums in his history, plus lots more details on the general production process too!... read more

A wonderful tribute to the Impulse Records label – one that's put together with as much graphic sensitivity as you'll find on the company's album covers of the 60s! The book is incredibly well researched – both from archival material and over 50 interviews with artists and producers... read more

A wonderful tribute to the Impulse Records label – one that's put together with as much graphic sensitivity as you'll find on the company's album covers of the 60s! The book is incredibly well researched – both from archival material and over 50 interviews with artists and producers... read more

The heady life and even hipper music of Sly Stone – told here by an author who managed to get Stone's participation on the project! The book focuses most strongly on Sly's rise to fame and key late 60s/early 70s years – a time when his records not only changed the face of soul music,... read more

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A pricey book, but a great one too – an essential guide to all things trippy and far-out – and a volume that covers countless great records from the 60s and 70s! As you'd guess from the title, there's a fair bit of listings for prog, psyche, and other wild rock genres – but there'... read more

An amazing little book, and one hell of a lifelong research project – a huge volume that documents deep details about the American underground of vanity, or "private" press records – obscure pieces of wax that were usually just pressed up by an artist for their own pleasure... read more

A book we can really get behind – partly because we're a groovy local retailer, just like the ones featured in the pictures! The volume is exactly what's promised in the title – a beautiful look at storefronts in Brooklyn – from local grocery stores, to mom and pop neighborhood... read more

Some of the greatest albums in rock and roll are those that were never released – including some that finally saw the light of day after decades, like the Beach Boys' Smile! This book really gets at that fact beautifully – showing how, although never issued, some of these key creative... read more

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Stevie Wonder's classic albums as guided though a musicians lens, rather than only the the prism of popular culture – put together by London based musician, columnist and author Steve Lodder – who has worked with Carla Bley, George Russell and Paul McCartney to name a few! The book... read more

A beautiful book on five key forces in American advertising of the 20th Century – and one with an especially strong focus on the important work of the Mad Men generation! The lavish book is filled with full color images, printed on heavy paper in an oversized format – and interspersed... read more